Various types of mechanisms have previously been employed to individually feed can ends and, more particularly, can ends have curled peripheral edge portions, from a stack. Such mechanisms are typically employed to feed ends to a forming press in which various forming operations are sequentially performed thereon. Conventionally, the ends, which are supported upon one another in the stack by their curled peripheral edge portions in nested relationship, are successively released from the bottom of the stack, by means of a pair of oppositely reciprocating separator knives, which are disposed to pass between the lowermost end and the one above it, so as to permit release of the lowermost end while simultaneously providing support for the remainder of the stack. More recently, a novel mechanism has been developed in which a pair of separator knives move together on a feed bar through a stack of ends to effect separation of one end at a time. In any event, because of normal variances in vertical registration of the knives with the stacked ends (resulting, for example, from differences in the degree of compression of the ends in the stack or from slight variations in their dimensions, due to forming, handling, etc.), the knives typically employed initiate separation by contact on their sharp leading edges, which tends to cause cutting of the edge curl of either the lowermost end or the one adjacent it, causing damage thereto and precluding smooth separation; in some instances, such interference causes jamming of the mechanism, particularly when it is operated at high speeds.
While attempts have in the past been made to alleviate the above-noted deficiencies, as far as is known, no such attempt has been entirely satisfactory. Among the drawbacks of the prior art mechanisms are included undue complexity of design and operation, inefficiency, insufficient speed, and inadequate smoothness of operation.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a novel can end feeding mechanism, which is relatively simple and efficient, which affords smooth separation of ends without damage thereto, and which is suited for high-speed operation.
It is also an object of the invention to provide such a mechanism, which accommodates substantial variation in can end spacing in the stack.